Seattle Mariners: Trade Dividing the Fan Base
Late Tuesday afternoon, news broke of a Mariners trade. This deal to acquire Abraham Toro shocked everyone.
In the NFL, there’s a football team currently named WFT. The reaction all fans and some players expressed were those same three letters. Just arranged in a different order. The Seattle Mariners agreed to trade relief pitchers Rafael Montero and Kendall Graveman to Houston for Abraham Toro and reliever Joe Smith. Let’s look at this deal now that there’s been time to sleep on it.
Trader Jerry
Soon after the trade news broke, Seattle Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto added some perspective to the trade. Acknowledging that the Toro for Graveman deal may look bad now. However, it may not look so bad come Friday, when the trade deadline ends. The M’s are already linked to Whit Merrifield of the Royals and Max Scherzer of the Nationals. If Dipoto can land both or one of those guys, M’s fans won’t be upset.
The Mariners didn’t just stop with one trade yesterday. They agreed to send minor leaguers catcher Carter Bins and right-hander Joaquin Tejada. In exchange for left-handed Pittsburgh starting pitcher Tyler Anderson. Anderson was initially traded to Philadelphia, but there was an issue with the medical check on one of the players headed to Pittsburgh. So Dipoto took this opportunity to land Anderson.
